Duterte: from non-entity in Pulse Asia surveys to Presidential frontrunner

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 April) – When Pulse Asia started its nationwide survey on the May 2016 Elections in June 2014, Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte, now the Presidential frontrunner, was not on the list of 11 potential Presidential candidates. In its September 2014 survey, the list was expanded to 15 and Duterte was still a non-entity even as signature campaigns nationwide had been launched to push him to run for the top post.
In both surveys, Vice President Jejomar Binay topped as the choice of 41% in June and 31% in September, of registered voters if elections had been held in 2014, followed by Senator Grace Poe with 12% and 10% , then Local Governments Secretary Mar Roxas with 7% and 13%, and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago with 7% and 11%.

When Duterte finally made it to the list of 12 in the March 2015 survey,only 12% were going to vote for him. Today, that figure has risen to 34% of the registered voters nationwide, according to the April 12-17 survey conducted by Pulse Asia for ABS-CBN.

From 12% nationwide in March 2015, Duterte gained three percentage points in the May survey with 15% and gained another one percentage point by September. At that time, Duterte was still vascillating on his decision to run for President, even filing his certificate of candidacy (COC) for mayor on October 15, his supporters awaiting him at the Commission on Elections in Manila on the last day of filing of COCs October 16.
He did not show up by 5 p.m., the deadline for filing COCs. But at 4:59 p.m. or one minute before the deadline, Martin Dino of the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) filed his COC for President, a move apparently made by the party to give Duterte a final chance to change his mind.

Frustrated supporters said they would wait for December 10 as the law allowed for substitution of candidates until that day. Dino withdrew his candidacy a few weeks later.

Duterte finally withdrew his COC for mayor while his lawyer in Manila filed his COC for President on November 27, a day after the results of a Pulse Asia survey on November 11 and 12 in the National Capital Region (NCR or Metro Manila) commissioned by a Davao City-based businessman, showed him as the top choice of 34% of the registered voters.

In the December 4-11 nationwide survey, held days after his controversial cursing of the Pope at his formal proclamation as PDP-Laban standard bearer, Duterte lost seven percentage points in the NCR (from 34% to 27%) but overall he was the choice of 23% of the voters, landing second to Vice President Jejomar Binay’s 33%,but statistically tied with Senator Grace Poe’s 21%, followed by Roxas’ 17% and Santiago’s 4%.

In the January 2016 survey, Duterte lost three percentage points (23% to 20%).

But staring February, Duterte was gaining more voters to his side, from 21% choosing him, to 24% in the March 1 to 6 survey, surging to 30% in the March29 to April 3 survey, then 32%in the April 5-10 survey and 34% in the April 12-17 survey.

Not listed
When the September 2014 results were released by Pulse Asia, MindaNews sent an e-mail askingwhy Duterte’s name was not on the list of possible Presidential candidates. At that time, he had been going around in his “listening tour” on federalism and signature campaigns were being passed around urging him to run for President.

Prof. Ronald Holmes, Pulse Asia Research President, replied then that prior to the conduct of the September 2014 survey, Duterte had repeatedly and categorically said he did not intend to run for President.

When Pulse Asia released the survey results on September 29, the accompanying press statement said “Pulse Asia Research’s pool of academic fellows takes full responsibility for the design and conduct of the survey, as well as for analyses it makes based on the survey data.”

It added that “in keeping with our academic nature, no religious, political, economic, or partisan group influenced any of these processes. Pulse Asia Research undertakes Ulat ng Bayan surveys on its own without any party singularly commissioning the research effort.”

Whose listing?
MindNews clarified through a second e-mail on who decides on the listing and how does one qualify to be on the list.It also asked if Duterte’s statements that he does not intend to run for President or Vice President eliminate him from being listed as possible candidate, and if the 15 on the list of Presidentiables categorically said they’d run for President.

Holmes said “the academic group of Pulse, myself, our research director and academic fellows, decide the listing.”

“We normally review published reports (from national media) and include the personalities who have expressed the intent to run, were named by organizations/parties as prospective standard bearers, and those who could be considered as prospective presidential and vice presidential candidates. We identify potential candidates for all the major ‘parties’ (e.g., LP, NP, UNA, Lakas) including possible independents who may be adopted by or run under new parties.”

Holmes said the repeated declaration of Duterte that he will not vie for a national position “led us to decide to take his name out in the September 2014 survey.”

He added that “depending on developments leading up to the December survey, we may or may not include him in the next round.”

Holmes also said “only one personality, VP Binay has categorically said he will run as president. A few (Roxas, Cayetano) are known to be open to vie for a national position while the others have been identified as potential candidates by their parties. Some, like Poe and Robredo (in recent reports), expressed that they are not ready for higher national positions.”

He said the list of prospective candidates had changed from survey to survey.

6 COMMENTS

AMID PUBLIC outrage over a viral video, university-based political analysts STILL consider Mayor Duterte’s PHENOMENAL surge as STRONG. In fact, his poll ratings are spiking higher as the electoral momentum is CLEARLY skewed in his favor.

SCIENTIFIC surveys suggest that he commands the most ‘UPVOTES’ since the start of the campaign. Unlike his closest opponents, Mayor Duterte nets a positive average growth rate of 2% or roughly 810,000 popular votes a week.

NOT one of the credible poll analysts could ever contradict the STEADY movement of his numbers as opposed to the DECLINING survey performances of Pres. BS Aquino’s shadow candidate, Sen. Grace Poe, and his SPURNED standard bearer Mar Roxas. Both are slumped together in the electoral plateau at negative .02% apiece. Simply put, each of them is LOSING at least 81,000 popular votes for each survey week.

AS to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, she still DAWDLES at the foothill with a negative .04% while VP Jejomar Binay seems to waltz up and down STILL trying to figure out how he ended up at the tail end of the race. Among the candidates thus far, he is the BIGGEST loser at negative .08% a week or 2.26 million votes a couple of weeks into the homestretch.

GIVEN all these, can Mayor Duterte overcome the viral challenge? UP political science professor Aries Arugay believes that Mayor Duterte can very well maintain his insurmountable lead. On the other hand, UST political science professor Edmund Tayao thinks that the voters’ sentiments could go either way. For his part, DLSU assistant political science professor senses a relapse among the mayor’s soft voters in favor of Sen. Poe. But then, as another DLSU professor Julio Tehankee says, the leading candidate WILL WIN if he survives the backlash of the controversial gaffe.

DESPITE the nuanced predictions on the possibility of a fall-out over the inappropriate remark, I couldn’t help BUT affirm the State University professor Arugay’s view on the issue. For one, ultra-conservatism, as exemplified by the Catholic Church hierarchy, does NOT have a credible command vote UNLIKE the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). It cannot impose its choice to the flock. The Catholic bishops have done it before to no avail. Their anointed bet, JC delos Reyes (Ang Kapatiran Party), lost to the eventual winner Pres. Aquino whom they even branded as “anti-life”. The bishops’ candidate only got around LESS than 1% of the total voters’ turn-out.

EVEN if the more progressive GABRIELA preferential votes are padded up to the ultra-conservative Catholic votes, they can ONLY generate around 2.12% or approximately 858,600 popular votes WHICH still fall short of the consolidated WEEKLY conversions of Mayor Duterte in his resurgent bailiwicks of Metro Manila, Mindanao and the Vizayas of approximately 899,000 votes or practically 2.21% of the estimated voters’ turn-out of 75%.

ESSENTIALLY, Mayor Duterte can still take a wider swath of AT LEAST 1.9% in the next round of ABS-CBN and PULSE Asia survey. Just yesterday, the SWS survey conducted AFTER the verbal lapse came up with a quite TELLING result with Mayor Duterte all the MORE increasing his poll standing by 6%, thus effectively PROVING his patent INVINCIBILITY over any other peripheral issues being thrown his way.

SO yet again, will the feisty mayor be able to RIDE OUT the viral storm? Yes, DEFINITELY, notwithstanding the ultra-conservative attacks against his person and what he stands for politically. What is CLEAR to every well-meaning Filipino voters now is that ALL electoral classes are CROSSING partisan lines just to give Mayor Duterte a FIGHTING CHANCE, if not a WELL-DESERVED victory, in the polls!

AMID PUBLIC outrage over a viral video, university-based political analysts STILL consider Mayor Duterte’s PHENOMENAL surge as STRONG. In fact, his poll ratings are spiking higher as the electoral momentum is CLEARLY skewed in his favor.

SCIENTIFIC surveys suggest that he commands the most ‘UPVOTES’ since the start of the campaign. Unlike his closest opponents, Mayor Duterte nets a positive average growth rate of 2% or roughly 810,000 popular votes a week.

NOT one of the credible poll analysts could ever contradict the STEADY movement of his numbers as opposed to the DECLINING survey performances of Pres. BS Aquino’s shadow candidate, Sen. Grace Poe, and his SPURNED standard bearer Mar Roxas. Both are slumped together in the electoral plateau at negative .02% apiece. Simply put, each of them is LOSING at least 81,000 popular votes for each survey week.

AS to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, she still DAWDLES at the foothill with a negative .04% while VP Jejomar Binay seems to waltz up and down STILL trying to figure out how he ended up at the tail end of the race. Among the candidates thus far, he is the BIGGEST loser at negative .08% a week or 2.26 million votes a couple of weeks into the homestretch.

GIVEN all these, can Mayor Duterte overcome the viral challenge? UP political science professor Aries Arugay believes that Mayor Duterte can very well maintain his insurmountable lead. On the other hand, UST political science professor Edmund Tayao thinks that the voters’ sentiments could go either way. For his part, DLSU assistant political science professor senses a relapse among the mayor’s soft voters in favor of Sen. Poe. But then, as another DLSU professor Julio Tehankee says, the leading candidate WILL WIN if he survives the backlash of the controversial gaffe.

DESPITE the nuanced predictions on the possibility of a fall-out over the inappropriate remark, I couldn’t help BUT affirm the State University professor Arugay’s view on the issue. For one, ultra-conservatism, as exemplified by the Catholic Church hierarchy, does NOT have a credible command vote UNLIKE the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). It cannot impose its choice to the flock. The Catholic bishops have done it before to no avail. Their anointed bet, JC delos Reyes (Ang Kapatiran Party), lost to the eventual winner Pres. Aquino whom they even branded as “anti-life”. The bishops’ candidate only got around LESS than 1% of the total voters’ turn-out.

EVEN if the more progressive GABRIELA preferential votes are padded up to the ultra-conservative Catholic votes, they can ONLY generate around 2.12% or approximately 858,600 popular votes WHICH still fall short of the consolidated WEEKLY conversions of Mayor Duterte in his resurgent bailiwicks of Metro Manila, Mindanao and the Vizayas of approximately 899,000 votes or practically 2.21% of the estimated voters’ turn-out of 75%.

ESSENTIALLY, Mayor Duterte can still take a wider swath of AT LEAST 1.9% in the next round of ABS-CBN and PULSE Asia survey. Just yesterday, the SWS survey conducted AFTER the verbal lapse came up with a quite TELLING result with Mayor Duterte all the MORE increasing his poll standing by 6%, thus effectively PROVING his patent INVINCIBILITY over any other peripheral issues being thrown his way.

SO yet again, will the feisty mayor be able to RIDE OUT the viral storm? Yes, DEFINITELY, notwithstanding the ultra-conservative attacks against his person and what he stands for politically. What is CLEAR to every well-meaning Filipino voters now is that ALL electoral classes are CROSSING partisan lines just to give Mayor Duterte a FIGHTING CHANCE, if not a WELL-DESERVED victory, in the polls!

AMID PUBLIC outrage over a viral video, university-based political analysts STILL consider Mayor Duterte’s PHENOMENAL surge as STRONG. In fact, his poll ratings are spiking higher as the electoral momentum is CLEARLY skewed in his favor.

SCIENTIFIC surveys suggest that he commands the most ‘UPVOTES’ since the start of the campaign. Unlike his closest opponents, Mayor Duterte nets a positive average growth rate of 2% or roughly 810,000 popular votes a week.

NOT one of the credible poll analysts could ever contradict the STEADY movement of his numbers as opposed to the DECLINING survey performances of Pres. BS Aquino’s shadow candidate, Sen. Grace Poe, and his SPURNED standard bearer Mar Roxas. Both are slumped together in the electoral plateau at negative .02% apiece. Simply put, each of them is LOSING at least 81,000 popular votes for each survey week.

AS to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, she still DAWDLES at the foothill with a negative .04% while VP Jejomar Binay seems to waltz up and down STILL trying to figure out how he ended up at the tail end of the race. Among the candidates thus far, he is the BIGGEST loser at negative .08% a week or 2.26 million votes a couple of weeks into the homestretch.

GIVEN all these, can Mayor Duterte overcome the viral challenge? UP political science professor Aries Arugay believes that Mayor Duterte can very well maintain his insurmountable lead. On the other hand, UST political science professor Edmund Tayao thinks that the voters’ sentiments could go either way. For his part, DLSU assistant political science professor senses a relapse among the mayor’s soft voters in favor of Sen. Poe. But then, as another DLSU professor Julio Tehankee says, the leading candidate WILL WIN if he survives the backlash of the controversial gaffe.

DESPITE the nuanced predictions on the possibility of a fall-out over the inappropriate remark, I couldn’t help BUT affirm the State University professor Arugay’s view on the issue. For one, ultra-conservatism, as exemplified by the Catholic Church hierarchy, does NOT have a credible command vote UNLIKE the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). It cannot impose its choice to the flock. The Catholic bishops have done it before to no avail. Their anointed bet, JC delos Reyes (Ang Kapatiran Party), lost to the eventual winner Pres. Aquino whom they even branded as “anti-life”. The bishops’ candidate only got around LESS than 1% of the total voters’ turn-out.

EVEN if the more progressive GABRIELA preferential votes are padded up to the ultra-conservative Catholic votes, they can ONLY generate around 2.12% or approximately 858,600 popular votes WHICH still fall short of the consolidated WEEKLY conversions of Mayor Duterte in his resurgent bailiwicks of Metro Manila, Mindanao and the Vizayas of approximately 899,000 votes or practically 2.21% of the estimated voters’ turn-out of 75%.

ESSENTIALLY, Mayor Duterte can still take a wider swath of AT LEAST 1.9% in the next round of ABS-CBN and PULSE Asia survey. Just yesterday, the SWS survey conducted AFTER the verbal lapse came up with a quite TELLING result with Mayor Duterte all the MORE increasing his poll standing by 6%, thus effectively PROVING his patent INVINCIBILITY over any other peripheral issues being thrown his way.

SO yet again, will the feisty mayor be able to RIDE OUT the viral storm? Yes, DEFINITELY, notwithstanding the ultra-conservative attacks against his person and what he stands for politically. What is CLEAR to every well-meaning Filipino voters now is that ALL electoral classes are CROSSING partisan lines just to give Mayor Duterte a FIGHTING CHANCE, if not a WELL-DESERVED victory, in the polls!

AMID PUBLIC outrage over a viral video, university-based political analysts STILL consider Mayor Duterte’s PHENOMENAL surge as STRONG. In fact, his poll ratings are spiking higher as the electoral momentum is CLEARLY skewed in his favor.

SCIENTIFIC surveys suggest that he commands the most ‘UPVOTES’ since the start of the campaign. Unlike his closest opponents, Mayor Duterte nets a positive average growth rate of 2% or roughly 810,000 popular votes a week.

NOT one of the credible poll analysts could ever contradict the STEADY movement of his numbers as opposed to the DECLINING survey performances of Pres. BS Aquino’s shadow candidate, Sen. Grace Poe, and his SPURNED standard bearer Mar Roxas. Both are slumped together in the electoral plateau at negative .02% apiece. Simply put, each of them is LOSING at least 81,000 popular votes for each survey week.

AS to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, she still DAWDLES at the foothill with a negative .04% while VP Jejomar Binay seems to waltz up and down STILL trying to figure out how he ended up at the tail end of the race. Among the candidates thus far, he is the BIGGEST loser at negative .08% a week or 2.26 million votes a couple of weeks into the homestretch.

GIVEN all these, can Mayor Duterte overcome the viral challenge? UP political science professor Aries Arugay believes that Mayor Duterte can very well maintain his insurmountable lead. On the other hand, UST political science professor Edmund Tayao thinks that the voters’ sentiments could go either way. For his part, DLSU assistant political science professor senses a relapse among the mayor’s soft voters in favor of Sen. Poe. But then, as another DLSU professor Julio Tehankee says, the leading candidate WILL WIN if he survives the backlash of the controversial gaffe.

DESPITE the nuanced predictions on the possibility of a fall-out over the inappropriate remark, I couldn’t help BUT affirm the State University professor Arugay’s view on the issue. For one, ultra-conservatism, as exemplified by the Catholic Church hierarchy, does NOT have a credible command vote UNLIKE the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). It cannot impose its choice to the flock. The Catholic bishops have done it before to no avail. Their anointed bet, JC delos Reyes (Ang Kapatiran Party), lost to the eventual winner Pres. Aquino whom they even branded as “anti-life”. The bishops’ candidate only got around LESS than 1% of the total voters’ turn-out.

EVEN if the more progressive GABRIELA preferential votes are padded up to the ultra-conservative Catholic votes, they can ONLY generate around 2.12% or approximately 858,600 popular votes WHICH still fall short of the consolidated WEEKLY conversions of Mayor Duterte in his resurgent bailiwicks of Metro Manila, Mindanao and the Vizayas of approximately 899,000 votes or practically 2.21% of the estimated voters’ turn-out of 75%.

ESSENTIALLY, Mayor Duterte can still take a wider swath of AT LEAST 1.9% in the next round of ABS-CBN and PULSE Asia survey. Just yesterday, the SWS survey conducted AFTER the verbal lapse came up with a quite TELLING result with Mayor Duterte all the MORE increasing his poll standing by 6%, thus effectively PROVING his patent INVINCIBILITY over any other peripheral issues being thrown his way.

SO yet again, will the feisty mayor be able to RIDE OUT the viral storm? Yes, DEFINITELY, notwithstanding the ultra-conservative attacks against his person and what he stands for politically. What is CLEAR to every well-meaning Filipino voters now is that ALL electoral classes are CROSSING partisan lines just to give Mayor Duterte a FIGHTING CHANCE, if not a WELL-DESERVED victory, in the polls!

AMID PUBLIC outrage over a viral video, university-based political analysts STILL consider Mayor Duterte’s PHENOMENAL surge as STRONG. In fact, his poll ratings are spiking higher as the electoral momentum is CLEARLY skewed in his favor.

SCIENTIFIC surveys suggest that he commands the most ‘UPVOTES’ since the start of the campaign. Unlike his closest opponents, Mayor Duterte nets a positive average growth rate of 2% or roughly 810,000 popular votes a week.

NOT one of the credible poll analysts could ever contradict the STEADY movement of his numbers as opposed to the DECLINING survey performances of Pres. BS Aquino’s shadow candidate, Sen. Grace Poe, and his SPURNED standard bearer Mar Roxas. Both are slumped together in the electoral plateau at negative .02% apiece. Simply put, each of them is LOSING at least 81,000 popular votes for each survey week.

AS to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, she still DAWDLES at the foothill with a negative .04% while VP Jejomar Binay seems to waltz up and down STILL trying to figure out how he ended up at the tail end of the race. Among the candidates thus far, he is the BIGGEST loser at negative .08% a week or 2.26 million votes a couple of weeks into the homestretch.

GIVEN all these, can Mayor Duterte overcome the viral challenge? UP political science professor Aries Arugay believes that Mayor Duterte can very well maintain his insurmountable lead. On the other hand, UST political science professor Edmund Tayao thinks that the voters’ sentiments could go either way. For his part, DLSU assistant political science professor senses a relapse among the mayor’s soft voters in favor of Sen. Poe. But then, as another DLSU professor Julio Tehankee says, the leading candidate WILL WIN if he survives the backlash of the controversial gaffe.

DESPITE the nuanced predictions on the possibility of a fall-out over the inappropriate remark, I couldn’t help BUT affirm the State University professor Arugay’s view on the issue. For one, ultra-conservatism, as exemplified by the Catholic Church hierarchy, does NOT have a credible command vote UNLIKE the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). It cannot impose its choice to the flock. The Catholic bishops have done it before to no avail. Their anointed bet, JC delos Reyes (Ang Kapatiran Party), lost to the eventual winner Pres. Aquino whom they even branded as “anti-life”. The bishops’ candidate only got around LESS than 1% of the total voters’ turn-out.

EVEN if the more progressive GABRIELA preferential votes are padded up to the ultra-conservative Catholic votes, they can ONLY generate around 2.12% or approximately 858,600 popular votes WHICH still fall short of the consolidated WEEKLY conversions of Mayor Duterte in his resurgent bailiwicks of Metro Manila, Mindanao and the Vizayas of approximately 899,000 votes or practically 2.21% of the estimated voters’ turn-out of 75%.

ESSENTIALLY, Mayor Duterte can still take a wider swath of AT LEAST 1.9% in the next round of ABS-CBN and PULSE Asia survey. Just yesterday, the SWS survey conducted AFTER the verbal lapse came up with a quite TELLING result with Mayor Duterte all the MORE increasing his poll standing by 6%, thus effectively PROVING his patent INVINCIBILITY over any other peripheral issues being thrown his way.

SO yet again, will the feisty mayor be able to RIDE OUT the viral storm? Yes, DEFINITELY, notwithstanding the ultra-conservative attacks against his person and what he stands for politically. What is CLEAR to every well-meaning Filipino voters now is that ALL electoral classes are CROSSING partisan lines just to give Mayor Duterte a FIGHTING CHANCE, if not a WELL-DESERVED victory, in the polls!

AMID PUBLIC outrage over a viral video, university-based political analysts STILL consider Mayor Duterte’s PHENOMENAL surge as STRONG. In fact, his poll ratings are spiking higher as the electoral momentum is CLEARLY skewed in his favor.

SCIENTIFIC surveys suggest that he commands the most ‘UPVOTES’ since the start of the campaign. Unlike his closest opponents, Mayor Duterte nets a positive average growth rate of 2% or roughly 810,000 popular votes a week.

NOT one of the credible poll analysts could ever contradict the STEADY movement of his numbers as opposed to the DECLINING survey performances of Pres. BS Aquino’s shadow candidate, Sen. Grace Poe, and his SPURNED standard bearer Mar Roxas. Both are slumped together in the electoral plateau at negative .02% apiece. Simply put, each of them is LOSING at least 81,000 popular votes for each survey week.

AS to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, she still DAWDLES at the foothill with a negative .04% while VP Jejomar Binay seems to waltz up and down STILL trying to figure out how he ended up at the tail end of the race. Among the candidates thus far, he is the BIGGEST loser at negative .08% a week or 2.26 million votes a couple of weeks into the homestretch.

GIVEN all these, can Mayor Duterte overcome the viral challenge? UP political science professor Aries Arugay believes that Mayor Duterte can very well maintain his insurmountable lead. On the other hand, UST political science professor Edmund Tayao thinks that the voters’ sentiments could go either way. For his part, DLSU assistant political science professor senses a relapse among the mayor’s soft voters in favor of Sen. Poe. But then, as another DLSU professor Julio Tehankee says, the leading candidate WILL WIN if he survives the backlash of the controversial gaffe.

DESPITE the nuanced predictions on the possibility of a fall-out over the inappropriate remark, I couldn’t help BUT affirm the State University professor Arugay’s view on the issue. For one, ultra-conservatism, as exemplified by the Catholic Church hierarchy, does NOT have a credible command vote UNLIKE the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). It cannot impose its choice to the flock. The Catholic bishops have done it before to no avail. Their anointed bet, JC delos Reyes (Ang Kapatiran Party), lost to the eventual winner Pres. Aquino whom they even branded as “anti-life”. The bishops’ candidate only got around LESS than 1% of the total voters’ turn-out.

EVEN if the more progressive GABRIELA preferential votes are padded up to the ultra-conservative Catholic votes, they can ONLY generate around 2.12% or approximately 858,600 popular votes WHICH still fall short of the consolidated WEEKLY conversions of Mayor Duterte in his resurgent bailiwicks of Metro Manila, Mindanao and the Vizayas of approximately 899,000 votes or practically 2.21% of the estimated voters’ turn-out of 75%.

ESSENTIALLY, Mayor Duterte can still take a wider swath of AT LEAST 1.9% in the next round of ABS-CBN and PULSE Asia survey. Just yesterday, the SWS survey conducted AFTER the verbal lapse came up with a quite TELLING result with Mayor Duterte all the MORE increasing his poll standing by 6%, thus effectively PROVING his patent INVINCIBILITY over any other peripheral issues being thrown his way.

SO yet again, will the feisty mayor be able to RIDE OUT the viral storm? Yes, DEFINITELY, notwithstanding the ultra-conservative attacks against his person and what he stands for politically. What is CLEAR to every well-meaning Filipino voters now is that ALL electoral classes are CROSSING partisan lines just to give Mayor Duterte a FIGHTING CHANCE, if not a WELL-DESERVED victory, in the polls!